Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the CreationLuther, Martin
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Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1: Luther on the Creation
Luther, Martin
Bible. Genesis -- Commentaries
In some quarters however English Protestants have been in danger of
appreciating the fathers of the Greeks and Latins to the extent of
neglecting to give due honor to their own. Many Protestant ministers'
libraries contain all classics except the Protestant classics. Let the
whole world have the Greek and the Latin fathers as it has, but let
Protestants awake and give the world theirs. Is it not a shame and a
pity that while all the writings of the Greek and Latin fathers have
been translated into many languages, yet the complete works of Luther,
the first and chief of the Protestant fathers, have never been
translated into any language, though his loyal disciples are numbered
by the hundreds of thousands in different tongues, as the fruits of
those writings? For of the 70,169,000 Lutherans in the world,
43,731,000 speak German, 7,300,000 Swedish, 3,500,000 Norwegian,
3,200,000 Danish, 3,000,000 Finnish, 1,100,000 Esthnish, 400,000
Hungarian (or 4,500,000 of the Finnish or Magyarian race), 4,000,000
English, 2,000,000 Lettish, 500,000 Slovakian, 300,000 Polish, 200,000
French, 100,000 Dutch, 100,000 Russian, 82,000 Icelandic, 50,000
Bohemian, 63,000 Wendish, 113,000 Lithuanian, 250,000 the heathen
dialects of Asia and 280,000 the heathen dialects of Africa. And
further as all German speaking Reformed churches use Luther's version
of the Scriptures, so they welcome his writings also.
True in all these 17 or more languages some of Luther's writings have
appeared. But it is distressing to learn how few they are, and how out
of date and imperfect some of these are. Luther is the common property
of all Protestants, and so are his writings. They would be helpful in
all time to the 21,000,000 Episcopalians, the 17,000,000 Methodists,
the 11,000,000 Baptists, the 9,000,000 Presbyterians, the 4,500,000
Congregationalists, and all other Protestants; and not only to the
140,000,000 Protestants, but also to the 80,000,000 Greek Catholics
and 200,000,000 Latin Catholics and to the heathen, to the infidel, to
the state as well as to the church. The first thing for Protestants to
do is to give all nations the Bible; and the second, to give them the
best Protestant classics. We can. Will we?
No nation or race is greater than its greatest men, and those greatest
men are not greater than their best writings. Hence little is of more
value in literature than the honest critique by these greatest men of
the best writings of the most civilized and cultured nations before
their time. Therefore of the greatest interest are the following
CRITICISMS OF THE GREATEST TEUTON CHURCH FATHER ON THE GREEK AND LATIN
CHURCH FATHERS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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